Bread-and-scan

The process of transferring a film or other material to a VCR, DVD or a broadcast in a way that matches the aspect ratio of 4:3 for NTSC, as well as for most televisions today. This results in a significant amount of loss of image information, primarily in the width of it.

At the beginning of a film cassette, you usually will see a message that argues that the film has been "... formatted for viewing on TV." This means that it has become a bread-and-scan.